Wrong colour to submit?

[onenewyorkminute]

Fully expected flaming for my "privilege" on this. And no, this isn't for an article or DM, this is a genuine question.

I'm a budding journalist and have started getting a few specialist areas of expertise.

One topic I was working on had an angle that relates to BAME backgrounds, and although I am white, I have enough resources, contacts and knowledge on the topic to write about it.

There's an up and coming online publication, that's being hailed as a breath of fresh air in the national press, targeting this demographic. Perfect spot to place this piece but as I was sorting out a pitch for them I noticed on their site:

"Please only submit pitches if you are identify as a woman of colour or a non-binary individual of colour."

Is this legal? I understand that they are trying to provide a particular platform and voice but surely you can't exclude people from submitting based on skin colour?

Anyway, I managed to place the pitch elsewhere but I'm still quite uneasy about this.

Thoughts?

Yes and rightly fucking so because of these fucking trans people

Many think it’s about how you feel and not who you actually reality

The left have allowed people to loose touch with the truth with their fucking virtual signaling and identity politics this is were the rabbit hole leads were

Jobs actually having to put an advert asking for people that are from the actual community not people who identified as one

They way want and actual black persons take

Just like it’s fuckjnb CF for trans people to think they can women’s officers

Legageddon

What do you mean by 'entitlement'?

Why is it entitled of the OP to want to write an article about a subject over which she has some knowledge?

The assumption here seems to be that the article must have been about 'what it's like to be black', if that were the case then you might have a point that a white person can't possibly know the answer so shouldn't write an article.

However if it's just on subjects related to race then OP has as much right to write on it as anyone else.

@PatriarchyPersonified just for some context, it was actually on a particular industry culture that is often very white, male focused. It was about a group of young black and Asian women creating a roadshow event to raise the profile of their particular talents because they are so woefully underrepresented. I'm involved within this particular specialist industry so I thought it was a) brilliant and b) newsworthy and one of the women suggested the publication.

Well done for taking the responses on board, but it's a little depressing you had to have the implications pointed out by a bunch of strangers on the internet. It suggests your resources may not be as comprehensive as you confidently asserted, or that there's at least one thing your contacts aren't telling you.

Smiggle that sound really positive and is definitely newsworthy.

I'm still at a loss as to why only black people are 'allowed' to report on it though?

I think it's reasonable to ask for certain groups to submit because you don't understand what it's like to be BAME. You might be able to find the information but you have never lived it. You won't be the only white person submitting.

It's racism that's okay. It's daft to me, and I'd give the publication a wider birth as I could manage.

Sorry OP, I can see where you’re stuck and think you need a bit more time reading around and understanding your privilege. Good luck, lots of really great writing available on the internet. And good luck in your continued efforts to add to people’s understanding of some BAME points. It’s great to try to amplify other people’s voices where we can, as long as we don’t use our own voice instead of amplifying theirs (IMO).

To expand my point. This kind of thing is a symptom of a bigger issue.

The whole 'white privilege' thing and the self flaggelation amongst the 'woke' that goes with it.

White privilege is the new original sin and like original sin you can never be absolved of it.

When I see someone say 'check your privilege' what they are actually saying is 'shut up, you are not allowed to speak'. That is simply not acceptable to me. They are also subtly reminding you and everyone else listening that they are a 'better' white person than you.

Fundamentally though i think it actually hurts the group it's supposed to help.

How disempowering must it be to be constantly told that all your problems are caused by another group, and that the only way you can be successful is if this other group are artificially silenced.

That to me is a white supremacist position in itself, because it infantilises black people and assumes they can't possibly succeed or be heard without help.

In the OPs specific case, why does it matter if she is white? Surely she should be able to submit her article and if it's the best one, it gets published? If not then it doesnt.

Anything else pre-supposes that a black person article wouldn't possibly be able to compete with hers, therefore if should be given an artificial advantage. If I was black, I'd feel deeply insulted by that sentiment.

PatriarchyPersonified

Would you feel the same way if a man had written an article about women and was complaining that he could not submit it to a magazine which only publishes female authors?

Bumble

It depends on the content of the article. If it was about 'what it's like to be a women' then I'd suggest he was misguided to think he had any credibility writing about that. However if it was an article around women's issues, gender equality etc, then why should it matter the identity of the person writing it?

As an aside, I have an issue with publications that 'only publish female writers', why is that acceptable?

It wouldn't be acceptable to start a magazine that 'only publishes articles by white men', so what's the difference?

Lots of white people talking absolute rubbish on this thread which is EXACTLY WHY we should prioritise BAME voices on this issue.

White people still get prioritised the vast majority of the time in journalism so if your frothing at the mouth over this rare instance of a publication choosing to amplify BAME voices instead you ought to question what your motivations are.

And to those frothing about trans people - what on earth does this issue have to do with being trans?!

White people still get prioritised in journalism*

*Citation needed.

Helpme

And what have I said that is rubbish?

Christ, some of the responses on this thread . Maybe it should be published as a perfect example of why there is a need for a platform that is reserved for BAME voices.

There is a lot of (rightful) anger on MN when men feel their right to talk about women's issues and experiences and feminism outweighs women's rights to do that talking ourselves, disgust expressed when men want to muscle in on women's reports of and discussions about our lived experiences. It boggles belief that there are people who can't see that being angry and offended that BAME voices being prioritised in discussions of the BAME experience is exactly the same as when people are angry that women's voices are prioritised in discussions of women's lives.

I'm surprised you haven't come across this before. There is a strong push to improve representation within the publishing/writing industry. There are publications and competitions for women writers, BAME writers, older writers, and some publishing houses are actively seeking submissions from poorly represented groups. I'm a writer, and I'm in several Facebook groups which flag up submission opportunities, and I'm certainly seeing more requests for material from specific groups.

This is a good thing. It's how we make sure that the experiences and views that are available for people to read are those of the whole of society. You're not being excluded on the basis of your skin colour - you're being 'excluded' on the basis of not having the right personal experience for this particular publication.

Citation needed.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/mar/24/british-journalism-diversity-white-female-male-survey

From 2016 but still relevant. Only 0.2% of journalists are black, despite black people making up 3% of the population of the UK. 95% of journalists are white, whereas only 82% of the population is.

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/research/files/Journalists%2520in%2520the%2520UK.pdf

Reuters study, in case you don’t like the Guardian.

Now in terms of where you’ve spoken rubbish...

How disempowering must it be to be constantly told that all your problems are caused by another group, and that the only way you can be successful is if this other group are artificially silenced.

It isn’t artificially silencing white people to remind them that they aren’t the voice a publisher wants to hear on a particular issue. If a publisher says ‘I want to hear from women who have had abortions’ and a man comes along and says ‘I haven’t had an abortion but I have knowledge, contacts and resources on this issue’ is he being silenced if the publisher says ‘actually that isn’t what we are looking for?’. Of course it isn’t. It’s simply that his voice isn’t what is required for that publication.

The OP has already indicated that she found another publication which accepted her piece - so how, exactly, has she been silenced? Free speech doesn’t mean you’re entitled to every single platform that exist. It doesn’t mean it’s always your turn to speak. It doesn’t mean anyone owes you the right to be published if you aren’t providing what they want.

And it isn’t infantilising to say to black oriole ‘we want to hear from you because you are the most authoritative voice on your own experience’. It’s simply recognising that it’s good journalistic practice to amplify the voices that are most knowledgeable and experienced in what you want to publish.

Anything else pre-supposes that a black person article wouldn't possibly be able to compete with hers, therefore if should be given an artificial advantage. If I was black, I'd feel deeply insulted by that sentiment.

Nothing about the request for submissions from black people indicates that the publication believes black writers couldn’t compete with white writers. They simply aren’t interested in a white person’s perspective on BAME experiences, however well-written that may be. It simply isn’t of interest to them, and as a private entity the publication is fully entitled to make whatever decisions it likes about what it wants to publish. If that isn’t white people talking about BAME experiences then a white person could be the best writer in the world and their article still isn’t going to be the right product for the publication.

YABU. “One topic I was working on had an angle that relates to BAME backgrounds,”. Clearly not enough of an angle to understand why they are looking for people from an underrepresented group to write for them.

Why don’t you write about white privilege that whites are supposed to have, maybe go round the local council schemes and the food banks and ask them about their white privilege they have.

what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
But to be honest write whatever you want to about any subject you like, this you can’t write about black/white topics is getting ridiculous now.

Why don’t you write about white privilege that whites are supposed to have, maybe go round the local council schemes and the food banks and ask them about their white privilege they have.

White privilege isn’t that everyone who is white leads a privileged life. There are lots of kinds of privilege - economic, social, gender, race, age etc. A wealthy black man will have more privilege than a poor white woman.

But a poor white woman has more privilege than a poor black woman, because while they have the same economic and gender disadvantages, a white woman won’t experience racial prejudice in the way a black woman will.

Privilege is complicated and people don’t just fit neatly into boxes. But it’s an incredibly important way of understanding that achieving equality is not as straightforward as trying to address one issue at a time. You have to look at the whole picture.

From what I see this publication states clearly that it is to give a voice to people of colour. As you are not in this demographic your voice is not appropriate for this. As you have found you were able to get your piece published elsewhere which is not a privilege afforded to everyone hence the need for a publication being exclusive (of course it can be and hopefully will be read by a wider audience). It sounds like you did excellent research with the right demographic but as the writer you will have chosen to include or exclude pieces of interviews to represent your 'writer's voice' which is not the voice this publication wants. I would hope that this positive discrimination would be understood and not challenged under equality laws.

Helpme

Firstly I do accept that black people are underrepresented in the media compared to their demographic within the wider population, but nowhere in your link does it show that this is a result of racial prejudice. Can you show this? I think it's more likely this is a result of the education system and the demographics going into certain fields. That's not the fault of the media, I actually think a qualified media candidate who happens to be black would have an advantage, particularly when applying to certain publications.

Secondly I think you are being a bit disingenuous about what I said. A publication that wants to publish an article about what it's like to have an abortion and therefore asks for submissions from women who have had an abortion is a specific example and is qualitatively different from a publication stating that they don't want articles from white people, fullstop.

I think you know that.

The very fact that the OP has written a piece about BAME but told she has to write something else instead because she isn’t BAME is racist in itself, yes? Why can’t a white woman write about BAME? Or is OP skin colour holding her back?

Think about that then parrot me

A publication that wants to publish an article about what it's like to have an abortion and therefore asks for submissions from women who have had an abortion is a specific example and is qualitatively different from a publication stating that they don't want articles from white people, fullstop.

I disagree. This publication wants to publish pieces about BAME experiences and so are only seeking submissions from those who have BAME experiences. That is in no way qualitatively different from only wanting to hear about abortion experiences from people who have had abortions.

but nowhere in your link does it show that this is a result of racial prejudice. Can you show this? I think it's more likely this is a result of the education system and the demographics going into certain fields.

This is a bit vague - if you're suggesting that our education system exhibits systematic racial bias which then affects the opportunities available to BAME people, then I broadly agree (albeit this is an overly simplistic analysis).

But if you're suggesting that BAME people have proportionately the exact same opportunities as white people and just choose not to take them up, then I don't agree and your position is not supported by evidence.

Consider for one thing the horrific racist abuse often faced by black journalists - Gal-Dem is a great (or rather, terrible) example of this. Look at the comments under their articles and you'll get a flavour for the kind of racist abuse BAME journalists face. Women journalists also experience this, particularly when discussing feminism, but without the added layer of racism.

Compare the treatment of Charlene White in choosing not to wear a poppy compared to Jon Snow when he made the same decision. Ask why she received death threats, threats of sexual violence and disgusting racist abuse where Snow did not.

Does that not already suggest that journalism is a more hostile environment for BAME people than white people, even before you did down into the statistics?

83% of journalists surveyed by NCTJ in 2016 indicated that they did work experience or internships before landing a paid role, and 95% of those were unpaid. Journalist Harrison Jones wrote in 2016 that the vast majority of these internships and placements come about through who you know, and contacts your parents have. This perpetuates a cycle - the vast majority of journalists are white, which means the vast majority of the young people they assist with internships are also white (not exclusively - but the majority) which means more young white people have opportunities to gain experience in journalism than young black people.

This lack of access is also tied heavily to class. 82% (again, research by NCTJ) of journalists have parents who are educated to degree level. This is hugely important given the emphasis on unpaid work experience - if you have parents who can financially support your unpaid work, you are in a better position. But the wage gap between BAME and white people educated to GCSE level is 11%, and 23% for university grads. 41% of Londoners in low income households are are BAME compared to their 35% share of the London population. So there are financial disadvantages faced by BAME people which makes accessing careers in journalism that much more difficult.